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Any stride players here? I've become obsessed, was wondering if anyone has any tips, advice or personal insights for practice & performance.. I've only just started working on it the past few months, up til now I've been playing mainly classical stuff.

pianoloverus
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Registered: 05/29/01
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Do a Youtube search on Adam Swansom, Jim Hession, Max Keenlyside, Dick Hyman, Fats Waller, Art Tatum or just stride piano. 1000's of videos are there. There are also many instructional videos by Dick Hyman and maybe Hession.

What pieces are you working on? Have you heard some of the stride classics? Some of the good stride piano books are Harlem Stride Piano and Fats Waller Transcriptions(I forget who did them).

In order of increasing difficulty IMHO are the works by James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Tatum(most of his are virtually impossible except for those with conservatory level technique). If you don't have big hands some of Waller's pieces can be difficult but if necessary you can roll all the LH tenths.

Here's a thread at Pianophilia where people have posted many stride pieces. You have to join but it's free. Many of the pdfs in the thread will have been deleted by now because they were posted a while ago, but if you ask nicely someone will almost always repost any deleted score you want.

Thanks pianoleverus, thats good info.. I picked up the Maple Leaf Rag a little while ago and then decided to try out my left hand at various approaches to Putting on the Ritz, I've Got Rhythm and some other tin pan alley and prohibition era stuff I've found online. My first objective is regaining some practice discipline however (I'm about five years out of regular practice, eek) so I haven't got too far with any tunes yet. I'm familiar with Waller and Tatum but not intimately so...time to dive in!

@andromaque- stride refers to the left hand "striding" a steady beat, alternating between bass notes and a high chord. it creates a great swing rhythm, kind of like a walking bassline but with chord voicings...really infectious stuff

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only what you are expecting to give — which is everything. What you will receive in return varies. But it really has no connection with what you give. You give because you love and cannot help giving." Katharine Hepburn

pianoloverus
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Registered: 05/29/01
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Originally Posted By: noSkillz

I would say most of Tatum's pieces are at the Chopin level. You just got to have good technique in order to play it even half good.

But there are a fairly large number of Chopin's works(the easier waltzes, mazurkas, preludes,nocturnes)that can be handled from a technical point by intermediate pianists with say 5 years of playing. I don't think there are any Tatum pieces in this category.

If all you need is "good technique" to play Tatum's works, why was he considered a "god", especially from a technical standpoint by most jazz pianists?

I believe Tatum's pieces are late intermediate to very advanced. If you want to play his very advanced pieces, go ahead and play his very fast full stride arrangements of Tiger Rag, the Shout, Liza, Tatum Pole Boogie, or How High the Moon. These I believe, are at the Liszt level. But if you are only playing Tatum's slower pieces, you are probably at the Chopin/Chopin etude level.

I would say Tea for Two is most likely somewhere in the Chopin level, but I cannot really tell, because in the middle of the piece, he does a run of E flat pentatonic thirds down and up the keyboard in the right hand. I have played the piece, but everytime I play those thirds, I mess it up badly. So most of time, I don't play the thirds, and I play a E flat pentatonic scale instead.

Art Tatum was a virtuoso of the Liszt level, but like many composers, I believe he didn't incorporate all his technique he had into every piece. Rather than making them all technically difficult pieces, it was more about giving his arrangements some "soul". Art Tatum, like the classical players, knew harmony very well. He pointed the way to the future, and his harmony and impovisational techniques would influence the bebop players. That's why Art was God, because he could improvise better than most other jazz players. Even if you can play Art Tatum's Tiger Rag, you still are not Art Tatum, because most likely you cannot improvise or hear things at his level.

Tatum's runs are not the best technical exercises out there. Take, for example, the pentatonic scale he does every once in a while. It only uses the first three fingers and this can probably be accomplished by the late intermediate pianist. Another reason why they are not the best is that they don't improve your technique as much as pieces like Chopin, Alkan etudes, although they require the same level of technique. All I want to say is, if you want to play as technical as Art Tatum, I would reccommend that you play some Chopin, Alkan, Liszt etudes first.

Playing ragtime can also help you develop stride playing. Although stride is more harmonically adventurous, the huge left hand jumps that classify stride can help.

I would recommend listening to one of the greatest stride players around today, Judy Carmichael or Mike Lipskin...especially Judy. Get her 2 book for beginning stride players. http://judycarmichael.com/CDs.shtml#book It comes with a CD and will definitely help develop technique. The two I find good are "you can play stride" and "introduction to stride".

Although Art Tatum played top level stride piano, his techniques emanated from what he heard Fats Waller and James P. Johnson do, except Tatum was a mental genius with his virtuoso stride/jazz playing.

_________________________
The thought of eternal efflorescence of music is a comforting one, and comes like a messenger of peace in the midst of universal disturbance--Roman Rolland, Musicians of Former Days

I agree with Classicalman. I play stride from Judy Carmichael's book "You can Play Stride Piano" and I use the CD for difficult timing. After listening to Count Basie's Jive at Five I never thought I would be able to play that fast but taking bar by bar....it's all possible and a lot of fun. For some reason I had a mental block with bars 53-58 and after listening to the CD for like a hundred times, I think I have it. I would love to hear her in concert.

I find the Atwell version rather boring compared to the two above because the bass pattern is almost the same throughout and I think it repeats the chorus indefinitely. I think Sands has a very good technique, but maybe because of poor mike placement the LH sounds louder than the RH. Also, the playing is almost metronomic and the piano seems horribly out of tune.

pianoloverus
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Registered: 05/29/01
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Originally Posted By: Bhav

It is a honky tonk piece, Atwells music is supposed to be out of tune!

Although honky tonk was sometimes played on poorly tuned pianos, I wouldn't go so far as to say it supposed to be played on this kind of piano. The pianos shown in the other videos aren't wildly out of tune, I don't think the pianos at the Old Time Piano Festivals and stride contests are out of tune. They're often nice looking and sounding grands.

What do you see as the difference between honky tonk and Harlen stride piano music?

There are also the previously mentioned Harlem Stride Piano collection and a book of Waller transcriptions other than those at the above site. A huge number of Tatum transcriptions are available at various places on the web and there is the Stride piano thread at Pianophilia with numerous other works.

Ralph Sutton as well comes to mind as a most excellent stride pianist in its purest form.

Stephanie Trick plays pure stride piano - great fun to watch. Hand Full of Keys and Viper Drag are great examples of pure stride. Have fun checking out the rest of her stride videos, and as well contained on her website. What a treasure!

Stride is great for playing by ear. That is, hita low bass note, any note, you're not thinkingany specific chord. Then a higher note, or chord,any note or chord, you're not thinking a specificchord or note. All this while you improvisewith the rt. hand, all by ear.

There are also the previously mentioned Harlem Stride Piano collection and a book of Waller transcriptions other than those at the above site. A huge number of Tatum transcriptions are available at various places on the web and there is the Stride piano thread at Pianophilia with numerous other works.

I mean the only collection with a hight quality of transcriptions : Posnak transcriptions are not very accurate and Scivaled book includes some partial transcriptions.